


Paths of Moonlight

by Methoxyethane



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Mermaids, Pre-Relationship, Shark Lance, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, baby turtles, siren keith
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-10
Updated: 2018-07-10
Packaged: 2019-06-08 02:10:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,822
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15233079
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Methoxyethane/pseuds/Methoxyethane
Summary: “Why are we so close to the beach?” Lance asked in a low voice, looking up at the sky to watch it grow red. Sunsets of course Lance knew about, he just never really bothered to go up to watch them from the air. The colors were all the same from underwater, but he’d never realized the pinks and oranges could make the clouds look so… soft.“Because that’s where they’ll be coming from.” Keith was also watching the sky with him, sitting close to Lance on the rock so that their fins idly brushed each other when the water around them rose up in gentle waves.





	Paths of Moonlight

**Author's Note:**

  * For [symphoniamochi](https://archiveofourown.org/users/symphoniamochi/gifts).



> HAPPY BIRTHDAY FROM ME, DAMNSPIDER AND GREENTEAFIEND MOCHI!!!!

“Hey,” Keith smiled, swimming up to Lance in the water. God he looked cute, usually he only bothered to smile when he had a good reason to, so it always made Lance’s heart soar just to see Keith’s lips hold that tiny little curl. It meant he was happy, just from something as simple as seeing Lance. “I’ve been looking for you. There’s something I wanna show you later, and I needed to find you before it starts.”

“Ooh,” Lance waggled his eyebrows back at his friend, swishing his tail in the waters dramatically. “Now that’s a mysterious little morsel. Something special happening?”

Keith grinned at him, sharp siren teeth glowing in an excited smile. “It’s the first full moon of summer.”

That just made Lance blink in confusion. “Full moon? What’s that?” He knew what the moon was, it was that weird useless white orb that floated in the surface world’s sky on the opposite end of the sun.

This time it was Keith who looked confused. “You don’t know what the moon is?”

“Sure I do,” Lance said. “I just don’t know what it’s full of. Water?”

Keith laughed, shaking his head so fast little bubbles trailed up in the water from the gills on his neck. “No, that’s just what it’s called when you can see all of it at once. Anyway, tonight it will be full, so I wanna take you up to the surface to show you something I think you’ll enjoy.”

Lance’s first instinct was to ask why the hell he’d ever go to the surface world when the sun wasn’t out to light it, it always looked to Lance like there wasn’t a damned thing going on up there.  But of the two of them Keith was the only one who actively hunted and ate humans, so Lance never even needed to go above the water’s edge. If Keith said there was something worth looking at he wasn’t about to question it. 

For one thing, Keith had already laughed at Lance once in the last minute, and for another, it would be kind of bad for this whole ‘Trying to show Keith how cool Lance can be and sweep him off his fins’ thing Lance had going.

So, Lance followed Keith up to the surface, both of them settling down on a craggy rock poking halfway out of the ocean. Not much more than their heads and shoulders were out of the water, but that was because Keith had brought them close enough to a beach that they’d need to both duck underwater if any humans passed by, likely able to spot them with a glance.

“Why are we so close to the beach?” Lance asked in a low voice, looking up at the sky to watch it grow red. Sunsets of course Lance knew about, he just never really bothered to go up to watch them from the air. The colors were all the same from underwater, but he’d never realized the pinks and oranges could make the clouds look so…  _ soft _ .

“Because that’s where they’ll be coming from.” Keith was also watching the sky with him, sitting close to Lance on the rock so that their fins idly brushed each other when the water around them rose up in gentle waves. 

Lance figured it was best not to ask, assuming Keith wanted to keep it a surprise. The sun was getting low enough now for the edges of the horizon to turn purple and the sky to grow dim, the latest point Lance had ever been out before he assumed it’d be too dark to see anything and went home.

Which meant he’d never before actually seen the stars. He’d seen hints of them before, tiny dim little dots of white growing in the distance, but he’d assumed that had been all there was to it. Lance had never known that when the sun went all the way down and the veil of blackness fell over the entire sky, that was when every tiny dot came out to  _ glow _ .

The entire sky shined with white sparkles, swirling in patterns Lance’s eyes weren’t sophisticated enough to follow. Millions and millions of tiny lights, not just in the sky, but even reflecting down onto the surface of the wind-stilled ocean to make the top of the very black waters they swam in glitter brilliantly around them. And in the center of it all, the moon, huge and round and bright enough to light up the sand of the beach with white, still rising into the sky in preparation for the night’s journey east.

“Holy shit,” Lance gasped in awe, swimming a few feet out to spin a little loop in the water, as if just to prove to himself he really was surrounded by stars on all sides. “I can’t believe I’ve never seen this before, it’s so beautiful…”

The purr of Keith’s light chuckle swam up behind him, meeting Lance in the middle of the waters to agree. “Yeah, I can’t believe you haven’t either. It only happens every single night.”

Lance laughed back, swatting Keith on the shoulder. And then of course, noticed the way the moonlight caught on Keith’s wet black hair to make it shine, the dim light practically casting a halo around his head that only made his sparkling eyes and warm smile stand out even more.

Red scales kissed Keith’s cheeks like freckles, spreading out from the fins of his ears to just touch the bridge of his nose. Lance had always loved the pattern, and right now the moonlight was making those same scales catch the light so they shined pink against his skin. He wanted to reach out and touch them, maybe even use his lips to taste how soft Keith’s skin was for himself, but… For right now, Lance was still too much of a coward to even reach out and take his hand.

“It’s starting soon,” Keith whispered to Lance after what was probably an inappropriately long period of staring. He swam closer to the shore, so close in fact that if he went any farther he’d be flopping his tail out of the water to roll up on the sand like a seal. Lance joined him, still deep enough in the water to avoid beaching themselves if the tide changed but close enough to see the mound in the sand Keith was pointing to.

The dirt, Lance eventually noticed, was beginning to writhe. Sand shifting and falling away slowly, whatever was buried underneath determinedly clawing its way to the surface.

When the first tiny green-black dot poked itself out of the sand to flail its way out, Lance finally realized what was going on. These were baby turtles, being born. Hatching their way out of their shells and digging out of the sand as their very first act on this Earth, the struggle of new lives fighting for their place in the world taking place right in front of their very eyes.

“Oh my goooodddddd,” Lance whispered, edging even further out of the water to get a better look. “Keith, look at them they are the tiniest cutest things I’ve ever seen!”

Even from the corner of his eye he could see Keith smiling at him, an affectionate “I know, right?” rolling off his tongue. “They hatch on the full moon and then follow its reflection on the water straight into the ocean.”

The sand was all shifting and falling away, the squirming mass of new life unburying itself to meet the world. Babies, teeny tiny babies, clearing out the sand to reveal what looked to be at least a hundred of them.

“There are so many, why are there so many? Look how fast they’re coming out, I can’t believe they just hatched!” 

Keith giggled again, bumping his shoulder against Lance’s playfully. “There have to be a lot, imagine how easy it is for seagulls to pick them up and eat ‘em like this.”

That made Lance pause. “They do look pretty tasty,” he admitted. “But they’re so CUTE who could ever be so heartless?”

They both joined in on a quiet chuckle, watching as the first baby turtle squirmed its way out of the hole he’d shared with his siblings to waddle out on land, teeny little flippers flailing out to crawl forward towards the ocean. More followed, and what was a moment ago nothing more than a wiggling spot of sand was now a full swarm of baby sea turtles, all spreading out to wander over the beach in confused newborn excitement.

The really amazing part was how fast it all went from there. The little guys wiggled their way down the beach at kind of an amazing clip, the first baby reaching him and Keith in the water after only five minutes and the very last one wiggling his way out of the sand pit he was born in only ten minutes after.

The final tiny turt slid down the hill they were on to tumble onto his back, taking a few long moments of flailing around pathetically. Lance was almost ready to claw is way over to just… give him a little nudge back onto his feet, but just as he was preparing to move the little guy managed to twist his way around and catch a foothold to turn himself over and continue on his quest.

Keith and Lance both watched him make his way down to the water, watched the current lap him up into his first swim. And then, because they were friggin’ mermaids, followed him for a little while after too, curious to see if any of these little babies actually knew what to do or where to go once they got in the ocean.

“Soooo cuuuuute,” Lance cooed again, now close enough to look at the little guy’s itty-bitty face. His eyes were so huge and his little flappers were still so clumsy in the water, Lance loved him and would die for this baby. “I wanna keep him!”

Keith snickered, grabbing Lance’s wrist where he had been about to poke at the turtle’s little fins to still him in the water. “No, we can’t keep him,” he smiled. “He’s not a fish, stupid, he still needs air.”

Lance pouted. “What, like all the time?”

This time they both laughed, and neither of them followed as they watched the current take their new little friend into the dark waters and out of sight, trusting he and the rest of the newborns would be safe because that was all they could really do.

But, while Keith was still loosely holding onto his wrist like that, Lance may have taken the opportunity to adjust it and take Keith’s hand in his. And they may have stayed hand in hand while they swam back into the deeper waters, occasionally passing tiny new turtles on their way home.

\--

 


End file.
